My Opinion on The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Well, where do I start? Here is a book which has won a Nobel Prize for Literature and is hailed as one of the all time classics but I absolutely detested it. This is my first book from Ernest Hemingway and probably my last.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea is about an old fisherman man who is hell bent on catching a big fish that drags him into the ocean for three days.

It is a very small book of 99 pages but I have to slog my way through every word of the book.
The Old Man and the Sea has tested my patience like no other book.
There are no takeaways from the book for me, be it in literary sense or story wise.

Reading this novella is anything but interesting. I did not like this book, not a scene, not a page, not a sentence, not even a word; not the old man, not the boy, not the fish. The story is not compelling enough and utter lack of excitement made this a very boring read for me. I've slogged through 99 long boring pages to get a closure and the ending is as disappointing as the entire book. 

They say not every book is for everyone. Maybe this book is not the one for me.

All in all, if you are someone who is even remotely like me, please don't pick this book.

P.S. If you are someone who liked/loved the old man and the sea, please enlighten me as to why this book is considered a classic and worthy of a Nobel prize.

My Opinion on Money Wise by Sharath Komarraju

I, for one have never read any books related to finance. Also, I have not taken up any courses on Finance during my engineering days. Considering all this I can say that my financial knowledge is pretty limited. So, when I came across this book I have little to no expectations from what I'm gonna get from it. I've finished it in two sittings on a single day. This is the very first book in my booklist I would love to have a re-read.

The title of the books goes by "Money Wise: The Aam Aadmi's Guide to Wealth and Financial Freedom", and it really lives up to the title. Sharath being himself has his way with words. Even the most confusing and complicated terms are explained in a very plain and simple English so that even a layman like me with very limited financial knowledge can actually understand the topic.

The book is so engaging, intriguing and gripping from the first to very last page. Even if you are an expert in finance, you'll still have something to take away from Moneywise.

The narration is quite simple and straight forward. It just feels like you are having a conversation with an old friend of yours who is much more knowledgeable than you. A considerable amount of research has gone before/while writing this book. This is one of the very few books that has got me hooked me from cover to cover.

I'm left with one pressing question after I'm finished with the novel. Why is Financial education not given it's due place in our education system? I've never gained this amount of information from any book till date, my acads included!

If you have always wondered(just like me) why the media gets so frenzy with speculations of rate cuts whenever a meeting by RBI Governor is scheduled, then Just dwell into the book to find out.

I sincerely hope that a sequel is in pipeline.(Mr.Sharath, pls take a note)

All in all, it is a must read book for all irrespective of your age, gender and profession. If you deal with money in your day to day life, then pick this up and you would actually thank me for suggesting this book

Click here: Money Wise - Sharath Komarraju.

The Kite Runner Book by Khalid Hosseini | Critical review & Analysis

"The Kite Runner" is the first of  Khalid Hosseini's books, also my first read from his work.

It is so difficult to sum up a book which you so badly wanted to like, but couldn't. I'll try my best in this regard.

In short, the kite runner summary is a story of a boy named Amir and his path to redemption for the mistakes of his childhood.

The first 100 or so pages which depicts the childhood of Amir and his closest aide, Hassan are very gripping but it is not the case with rest of the book. The book is overly detailed to my liking. Many parts of the book does not add any substance to the plot.

Unnecessary and untimely usage of Farsi words does nothing but break the flow of the reader. I personally feel that this book does not deserve the status it enjoys.

The character of Hassan is kept in the dark and I expected to see some sort of confrontation between the two lead characters. But, that is not meant to be.

Also, it is beyond me why whenever Amir gets his hand on a kite, he starts bleeding.

I do feel that there are some moments which are really heart touching, such as the scene where the refugees are smuggled from Afghanistan in an oil truck which is quite horrifying.

I'm sorry that I couldn't give more insights on this without revealing the plot.

There are a few kite runner quotes that I liked so much.

"There is only one sin,only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life...you steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. when you cheat, you steal the right to fairness...there is no act more wretched than stealing"

"Every woman needs a husband, Even if he did silence the song in her"

"For you, a thousand times over"

All in all I wouldn't recommend this book. This book is also made into the kite runner movie which I didn't like.
But if you are so adamant about reading this I would suggest you take up this book with minimal/no expectations.
Goodreads Link

My opinion on A Walk To Remember Novel.

     I've been meaning to start a blog from way long back and me being my lazy self have been postponing it . But, recently I've come across a book by "Nicholas Sparks" titled "A Walk To remember." Ever since reading that book, it became a tad difficult for me to postpone this further. So, here goes my first book review.

This is my very first novel by Nicholas Sparks and I should say that I've absolutely loved it.

It is a simple story of a 17 year old boy named landon, a sweet and innocent girl jamie and the love that blossomed between them.

I'm not gonna bore you with a gazillion details about the story, characters, twists and turns, series of events, spoilers etc. Anyway you're gonna get to know all of them while reading. I'll just give my insights while reading this book and it is entirely up to you if you read the book or not. 

The writer hits it right from the Prologue. The last line of the Prologue says

"First you will smile, and then you will cry-don't say you haven't been warned" and he's not kidding.

The story is woven beautifully around the lead characters with subtle emotions.

There are no unwanted characters, no unnecessary descriptions depicting How beautiful the flower is or How magnanimous that mountain looks!

It is an easy read and an absolute page turner. Took me just three hours to finish it. The style and size of the font used is pleasing to the eye. The usage of simple crisp English made my life easier.

All in all a must read book, if you are a book lover.

Ending with a line from the book 

"It was, I remembered thinking, the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make.

In every way, a walk to remember."

Goodreads Link:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3473.A_Walk_to_Remember